Kiama SES and the Illawarra Police Rescue Squad retrieved Roxy the dog from a cliff at Gerringong. Picture: Courtesy of Kiama SES

An adventurous pooch had a lucky escape on Saturday after it became trapped halfway down a steep cliff in Gerringong.

A man was walking his neighbour's black staffie, Roxy, near the Gerringong cemetery when the dog spotted something and chased it down the cliff, becoming stuck under dense vegetation.

The NSW SES Kiama unit and the Illawarra Police Rescue Squad were called about 10am to retrieve the pup.

Kiama SES volunteer Andrew McCullough said the teams could hear the dog whimpering but couldn't see it when they arrived.

The squads abseiled down the cliff and cut back the lantana, before bringing Roxy back up.

"It was a pretty dangerous situation and we didn't want to take risks, so it took a while, probably an hour-and-a-half," Mr McCullough said.

"We burrowed through the lantana and a member of the police rescue went down and grabbed her and we put some safety lines in, abseiled guys from the SES team down and brought the dog back up on a lead and a safety line."